In 2007, the Czech artist Roman Tyc used stencils to replace the green and red pedestrians on 50 streetlights at major intersections with funny or disturbing images: a peeing man, a figure hanging from a rope, a sensuous playmate, a crucifixion victim, even a man defecating. But a Czech court didn’t find it amusing. Tyc was charged with vandalism and was recently ordered to pay 80,000 korunas ($4,260) in damages as well as 60,000 korunas ($3,200) in fines, according to Courrier International.
The artist (whose real name is David Hons) agreed to pay the damages, but refused to pay the fines. Now he finds himself behind bars. Tyc calls his project “Semaphores,” and since he’s been in prison his fans have picked up where he left off. All over the Czech Republic, people have been decapitating streetlight pedestrians by placing black stickers over their heads. In this way they’re showing their support of an artist who many Czechs consider to be a harmless free spirit.
In a way, jail time represents the culmination of Tyc’s project, which involves “showing that the state is a dumb, repressive machine,” according to Hospodarske Noviny. Tyc belongs to Ztohoven, a subversive collective that seeks to short-circuit official communication networks in order to dismantle their power. Most famously, Ztohoven — whose name translates either as “one hundred shits” or “getting out of this” — hacked into the Czech public television station CT2 and showed images of a fake nuclear explosion.
In another show of support for Tyc, citizens baked cakes and brought them to Prague’s Pankrak prison when he was taken there in late February. After his wife decided to bake a cake for the artist, local businessperson Petr Vidensky used Facebook to invite others to do the same. “It’s really disturbing that the Czech president decides to pardon real criminals and that an artist has to spend time in prison,” Vidensky told France 24. “How can someone who has won awards in Austria for his work be tried and jailed for that same work in his own country?” Due to security regulations, Tyc was not allowed to take the cakes into the prison. But a petition demanding his pardon has collected 6,000 signatures so far.
In 2010, a bus driver named Smetana served 100 days in prison for having slashed campaign posters. “People like Tyc and Smetana are not criminals and don’t deserve prison time,” Vidensky said. “We live in a democracy. I’ve been to countries where people are oppressed. I feel like all this could have happened in Belarus, but that it never should have happened here.”
Click on the slide show to see more images of Roman Tyc’s streetlights.